Blogger Bios

Written by: Sarah Murphy. on September 1, 2009.

Lenny Sydney Adler (Guest Blogger, November 2011) received her MLIS from Pratt Institute with a certificate in Archives. She is currently working as an archivist for Radio City Music Hall. Prior to working in libraries and archives, Lenny had been working in local restaurants, bars, music venues, and bookstores for 10 years and hopes to translate her fondness for multimedia, service, and culture into a strong foundation in her work as a information professional. If she wasn’t organizing media for the masses, she would be cutting your hair.

Amber Billey (guest blogger, December 2009 & March 2010) received her MLIS from Pratt Institute with certificates in Archives and Museum Librarianship. At Pratt, she focused on metadata standards, cataloging, and digital libraries for cultural heritage institutions. She currently works as the metadata specialist and content strategist for Whirl-i-gig, the software firm behind the design of CollectiveAccessan open-source collection management system for museums, archives and historical societies. Billey is also the Co-President for Friends of the Greenpoint Branch Brooklyn Public Library, and she has cataloged every millipede known man. (photograph by Tara White)

S. D. Booth (Guest Blogger, August 2011) is an archivist for NARA in Washington, D.C. Previously, he served as project archivist for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Archival Collaborative Project at Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. As an active member of the American Library Association, Booth is involved with several diversity and recruitment initiatives including the Spectrum Scholarship and Discovering Librarianship Programs. He earned a M.S. in archive management from Simmons College.

Maura Deedy (Guest Blogger April 2011) has worked as an Information Services Librarian at the Ferguson Library for the past 5 years. She has overseen public and staff technology training, digitization projects, and worked on a website redesign. She is returning to the Boston area in the spring of 2011. She received her MSLIS from Simmons College in 2006, and a BA in Anthropology and Women’s Studies in 2003. When she isn’t librarying, she can be found training for distance races, reading in the park (weather permitting) and making fancy cocktails.

The Desk Set Downunder (Guest Bloggers, December 2010) Romany and Andrew are librarians from Melbourne. They met at a librarian conference when Andrew was working in Darwin and Romany was about to spend a year volunteering in Vanuatu. However, a year ago, they finally found themselves living in the same city, and some ideas started flowing. These ideas finally came together earlier this year with the birth of The Desk Set Downunder, and hopefully great things will follow.

Maria Falgoust (Desk Set co-founder) is an upper-school librarian in Brooklyn Heights. In 2007 she earned her Masters in Library and Information Science from the Palmer School, and in 2000 she received her Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from the University of Washington in Seattle. Maria is an avid reader, cook, traveler and party-organizer. Born and raised in New Orleans, she is passionate about the rebuilding of her culturally rich and economically challenged hometown.

Lisa Goldstein (guest blogger, November 2009) has been working as a young adult librarian for the Brooklyn Public Library for almost seven years. She currently coordinates teen services for six branches in East New York and Brownsville.

Karen Green (Guest Blogger, June 2011) is the librarian for Ancient & Medieval History and Religion at Columbia University, where she also began the graphic novels collection over five years ago. She has an M.A. and M.Phil. in medieval history from Columbia, and an M.L.I.S. from Rutgers. Before becoming a librarian, or even a graduate student, she had worked as a bartender, a hotel manager, and a massage therapist. This history has been surprisingly useful in her library career.

Matt Haugen (Guest Blogger, February 2010) is the Catalog Librarian and Systems Assistant at the New York Society Library. He received his MLS from the Palmer School in January 2010, along with a certificate in Archives Management and a concentration in Rare Books and Special Collections. In 2007, he received his Master of Arts in Religion from Yale, where he also worked as a manuscript processor at the Beinecke Library. Matt received his BA in Classical Studies from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, and was a frequent user of the public library in his hometown in northern Minnesota. His professional interests include: using digital collections and exhibits to increase access to rare books, manuscripts, and historical source materials; issues of religion, cultural heritage, and censorship in libraries; and social networking. His reading interests include cultural studies, feminist theology, and historical fiction, and he has also recently begun exploring the science fiction and fantasy genres. Outside of the library, he enjoys baking and vegetarian cooking, swimming, board and video games, and live music

Gwyn Hervochon (Guest Blogger, March 2011) has been a fan and friend of the Desk Set since the beginning, and credits Sarah and Maria as primary inspirations in her decision to pursue her MSLIS. Gwyn is a 2010 graduate of the Palmer School of Library and Information Science where she completed the concentration in Rare Books and Special Collections as well as a certificate in Archives and Records Management. With a background in theatre, Gwyn is happily spending the year at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon as the Archives Assistant while waiting to see where her job hunt takes her next.

Bergis Jules (Guest Blogger, November 2010) currently serves as the Project Director and Archivist for the Black Metropolis Research Consortium’s (BMRC) collections survey initiative where he supervises a team of archivists who locate, document and appraise “hidden” African American archival collections housed at various sites in and around Chicago.The goal of the survey initiative is not only to improve access to help preserve irreplaceable collections of African American and African related materials in its member institutions holdings; it will facilitate a revitalization of African American studies in Chicago and beyond while also influencing the work of similar organizations and consortia. It will also inform the development of Web-based databases of archival materials and search tools, which will help scholars and others worldwide to share information effectively and expediently.

Bergis received an M.L.S. with a Specialization in Archives and Records Management and an M.A. in African American and African Diaspora studies from Indiana University.

Robin M. Katz (Guest Blogger, April 2010) is the Digital Initiatives Outreach Librarian at the University of Vermont Libraries’ Center for the Digital Initiatives (CDI), a digital library of unique research collections available online at http://cdi.uvm.edu. She graduated from Kent State SLIS in 2009 with a concentration in Special Collections and Archives. Previously, she has worked with librarians at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Laura Krier (Guest Blogger, September 2011) received her MSLIS in 2009 from Simmons College, where she focused on library systems, database management, web development, and
library technology in general. She was chair of the student chapter of Progressive Librarians Guild and an active member of ASIS&T. After two years as Systems and Metadata Librarian at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, she managed to find her way back home to California, and is currently working as a Metadata Analyst for the California Digital Library. When she’s not librarian-ing, Laura can usually be found in the kitchen, or on the couch with a good book.

Dorothy Lazard (Guest Blogger, May 2010) is a reference librarian at Oakland Public Library’s Main branch where she manages the history, architecture, map and travel collections, and the Oakland History Room. She earned her MLIS degree from University of California at Berkeley where she worked for many years running the Women’s Studies and Counseling Center libraries. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College in Baltimore, and has had essays published in several literary journals and anthologies.

Chris Maisano (Guest Blogger, September 2009) is a Young Adult Librarian at Brooklyn Public Library. In 2008 he earned his Master of Science in Library and Information Science from Drexel University in Philadelphia, and in 2000 he earned undergraduate degrees in History and Poltical Science from Rutgers University. When he’s not at work, Chris spends his time engaging in political activism, reading, listening to music and going to shows, plowing his way through his Netflix queue, and dealing with the psychological trauma that comes with being a fan of both the Rangers and Mets.

Caitlin McGurk (Guest Blogger, January 2011) is the head librarian of The Center for Cartoon Studies‘ Schulz Library. She has a Masters in Library and Information Science from the Palmer School in New York City, and has worked primarily with comic book collections and alternative libraries. These include the Center for Cartoon Studies, Marvel Comics, the Bulliet Comics Collection at Columbia University, CUNY Hunter’s Zabar Art Library, and The Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center.

Before being appointed librarian at The Center for Cartoon Studies, she worked as the first librarian at the Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center, where she established and maintained a diagnoses library for the family and friends of children with terminal illness. There, she provided reference instruction, book therapy, reading, and zine-making programs. Caitlin began her work as a comics librarian by sorting, cataloging, and archiving the Bulliet Comics Collection, as part of the Rare Books department of Columbia University’s Butler Library. In the following year, she worked for Marvel Comics to create both a physical and digital lending library for all single-issue comics and bound volumes. In January of 2010, she wrote an article entitled “Comic Book Maintenance and Preservation for Archives and Special Collections” for Diamond Comic’s “Bookshelf” publication. She was also the recipient of The New York Library Club Scholarship Award for 2009 for her accomplishments as a comics librarian. Caitlin self publishes the zine and mini-comics series Good Morning You, and she aspires to promote the advancement of comics research by broadening their accessibility in the collections of universities and libraries worldwide.

Holly Morganelli graduated from Pratt with a MILS in 2009, and has worked for Brooklyn Public Library as a PULSE Librarian Trainee and Lubuto Library Project in Lusaka, Zambia after receiving a fellowship for international librarianship. She also worked as a cataloging librarian for a Latin American book distributor in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a position she left when she was hired as the head of the art library for Matha: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar. The museum is set to open in December 2010, and she has been developing all aspects of the library and library services in preparation for the opening date.

Abby Moynahan (Guest Blogger, July 2010) is currently a Library Media Specialist for the Schenectady County, N.Y. School District. Abby works in two kindergarten through sixth grade elementary schools. She received her Masters in Library Science from Pratt Institute in 2009. When Abby is not teaching she enjoys cooking and working in her garden.

SarahMurphy (Desk Set co-founder) is a school librarian in Manhattan and works with students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Sarah has a Masters in Library and Information Science from the Palmer School, where she concentrated in Rare Books and Special Collections, and she has previously worked at the New York Society Library and in the Rare Book Room at the New York Academy of Medicine. Sarah also works occasionally in classical theatre, and she co-founded the Bakerloo Theatre Project in 2000. She and Maria Falgoust founded the Desk Set in 2006.

Katie Nachod (Guest Blogger, August 2010) was born in Philadelphia to a Yankee father with Czech roots but a Southern (from Mississippi) mother who was half Irish and half English. She moved to New Orleans when she was nine, and lived there most of her life, except for a year at Beloit College in Wisconsin and two years at Drexel University back in Philly for her M.L.S. After getting her undergraduate degree in English Literature at the University of New Orleans, she decided to get a job for a year and save some money for English graduate school. As Robert Burns said, the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley. Since her mother was a librarian at the New Orleans Public Library, that seemed a likely place to apply, and she was hired as a library assistant in the Children’s Department of the main library. She enjoyed the work so much that she stayed almost three years and ending up going to library school instead of English graduate school. She returned to New Orleans for her first professional job, as a Business & Science Librarian back at the New Orleans Public Library. After the first year, she was given the added position of Government Documents Librarian, the beginning of a several decades long love affair with legislative, judicial, and regulatory reports and publications. Her next two positions were as the Government Documents/Microforms Librarian at Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University and then at Tulane Law Library. She stayed in the latter job for nineteen years, thoroughly enjoying academic legal research. Then after losing her home to the floodwaters following Katrina, she made a job change as well, and for the past three and a half years has been the Reference/Electronic Resources at the Law Library of Louisiana, the only public law library in the state, part of the Louisiana Supreme Court. After starting out a Â public library some thirty years ago, she has made a full circle back to another type of public library. She is a voracious and eclectic reader, her latest finds being two older titles, The Alchemist by Paul Coelho and The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. She is also a movie buff, and just saw Things We Lost in the Fire, starring Halle Berry, David Duchovny, and Benicio de Toro and an amazing documentary about the Barnes Collection in suburban Philadelphia (but not for long) entitled The Art of the Steal. For music, her abiding favorite is Leonard Cohen, but she listens to jazz (especially Gypsy jazz — she has a dog named Gypsy and one named Django, after Django Reinhardt), and old favorites like Nina Simone, Judy Collins, Loreena McKennitt, The Neville Brothers, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Michael Franks, and John Prine, just to name a few.

Emily L. Nichols (Guest Blogger, January 2010) is the Head of Children’s Services at the Beverly Public Library in Beverly, MA.Â Before relocating to the New England seaside she was manager of school age children’s programs for five branches of the Brooklyn Public Library. Emily received her M.L.S. from Queens College and holds a B.A. from Smith College in History and Archaeology. You can find her poetry, reviews, photos, and non-library ideas at http://emilynichols.net/

Ryan Phillips (Guest Blogger, July 2011) is an Assistant Professor in the Newman Library at Baruch College, CUNY in New York City. In his current role, Ryan acts as an instructional and business reference librarian and as a liaison to the Entrepreneurship Faculty at the Zicklin School of Business. Prior to his role at Baruch, he was a research analyst at Booz & Co.

Jessica Pigza (guest blogger, October 2009) is a rare book librarian in the New York Public Library. When she’s not helping researchers, she writes and develops programs on DIY culture and the history of craft both at NYPL and at Handmade Librarian. Jessica earned her Masters in Library and Information Science from the Palmer School, with a concentration in Rare Books and Special Collections, and she has worked at the Maryland Historical Society and the New York Society Library.

Shannon Simpson (guest blogger, February 2011) is a 2009 graduate of Kent State with a Master in Library and Information Science. She spent a year and a half in a Residency at Towson University’s Cook Library, and was offered and accepted the hybrid position of Research Instruction and Special Collections Librarian in January 2011. Shannon blogs regularly at The Baltimore Bookie. Shannon has a B.A. in English with a writing focus and psychology minor from Cleveland State University, and she writes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and screen plays. She plays a variety of instruments and enjoys composing. As a cellist and composer, Shannon completed an accelerated music program at Carnegie Mellon University, and while doing social work in Bolivia, she performed and toured with the Bolivian Symphony Orchestra and taught piano and music theory.

Urban Librarians Unite (Guest Blogger, May 2011) is a loosely affiliated group of library professionals and advocates. Originally created as a social/professional organization promoting dialog across librarians in the city, it has morphed into a grassroots activist group. ULU creates campaigns and events to support public libraries in New York City.

Tinamarie Vella (guest blogger, October 2010) has been working at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Research Center since September 2007. She currently serves as the Membership Chair of the New Members Roundatble (NMRT) of the New York Library Association (NYLA). She received her Master of Library and Information Science from the Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Long Island University. She also received a MA in English from CUNY Brooklyn College and a BA in English from Pace University.You can follow her @ms_tinamarie for random yet entertaining tweets about libraries, geeky pop culture and (mostly New York Mets) baseball.

Marie Warsh (correspondent, the A.P. Tureaud Book Drive) pictured here at the Creole Cremery in NOLA, is a landscape historian who works in Central Park.

Robert Weinstein (Guest Blogger, October 2011) Born and raised in West Bloomfield, Michigan, Robert Weinstein studied theater in Kansas, France and Italy before moving to Brooklyn, where he still resides. He currently works as a Bibliographic Assistant in the Barnard College Library and is pursuing a Masters degree at Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library Science. In his spare time he House Manages and performs at the Magnet Theater and he once place second at The Moth storytelling slam. It was a great time and he is very proud of it.

Julia Weist (blog columnist, “Librarian in the Spotlight”) is an artist and art librarian. Recently, she’s helped develop digital archives for the New Museum of Contemporary Art and The Bruce High Quality Foundation University. Her novel, Sexy Librarian, was published in 2008.

WNYC Archivists Haley and Emily (Guest Bloggers, December 2011) met when they were hired to work at WNYC. They were born two weeks and 80 miles apart in Oklahoma, grew up in Texas, pursued their MSIS(s) at UT Austin and love their dogs. Hobbies include Mayor La Guardia-isms, food trucks and celebrity spotting.